captioned by closed captioning services, inc. good morning, i'm kristen sze. and i'm cheryl jennings. fire broke out at the alvarado shopping center on alvarado boulevard. nick smith is live on the scene. >> reporter: good morning. with daylight come the shock in the aftermath of in fire. you can see had you this parking lot is a flooded mess and the building is destroyed. we have counted nine businesses that have been gutted by flames or severely

damaged because of water. look at flames in video from last night that tore through this strip mall. alameda county fire responded to the call of a structure fire after 1 a.m.. four alarms were called, the fire so intense at one point caused collapse of roof to the building. the heat so intense the smoke so thick and threat of that fire spreading so immediate that the 50 residents in an apartment building behind the mall were evacuated as a precaution. i spoke with one small business owner who could not believe what he saw. >> a lot of people call me and it is like, looks really bad, smoke all over and fire, you see all the flames and everything. shop for 24 years with daylight comes shock and frustration that he and other owners are dealing with after seeing for the first time their shops so heavily damaged

or in some cases completely destroyed. it took two hours to get the fire under control. the only person injured was a firefighter who received a cut to the back of his hand. they tell us this fire is still under investigation and they are searching for a cause and/or engine of where the fire started. right now -- shop owners have shown up all day, firefighters have kept this area blocked, many are east their shops for the first time. nick smith, abc7 news. in north richmond firefighters are trying to figure out if lightning sparked this fire at an industrial business yard around 2:00 this morning near giant road. equipment, vehicles and wood pallets were fully engulfed. fire department says there was lightning before call came in right now san francisco sheriff ross mirkarimi is

getting ready to take back his job after being reinstated last night. early they are year he pleaded guilty in a domestic violence case and is still on probation and undergoing 52 weeks of classes. terry mcsweeney joins us with more. >> reporter: anyone expecting sheriff mirkarimi to be behind his desk at 8:00 calling the shots would be disappointed. he was on the job two months circumstance spended more than six, he has a lot of catching up. take a look at board of supervisors meeting last night it went on for hours. the question, should the board uphold the ethics commission ruling that mirkarimi committed official misconduct when he wraoused his wife's arm during -- when he bruised his wife's arm during a confrontation. the board vote 7-4 to uphold that finding but needed nine yes votes to remove him from office, mirkarimi suspended by

mayor lee is sheriff again. >> they will be meeting later today to tart their transition period and they will spend a few days on that and then sheriff mirkarimi will be starting for fulltime on monday >> i have a job to do and i will do so, enlightened by i think the transformation that i hope to demonstrate as the sheriff. >> reporter: d.a. gascon as well as mayor lee both scheduled news conferences for later today to talk about this matter. sheriff mirkarimi expected in his office sometime this afternoon for one of those transitional meetings. back out here live this is civic center plaza across the treat from city hall they are putting up massive skateboard ramp for an exhibition a couple weeks from now. all the twists and turns they do on these ramps don't

compare to the twists and turns in this sheriff mirkarimi story. more on that from vic lee tonight at 4, 5 and 6:00. terry mcsweeney, abc7 news. u.s. supreme court just finished hearing arguments over university of texas program that uses race as a factor in student admissions. hundreds gathered outside the court this morning as justices took up the biggest affirmative action case in a decade. a student sued after her college application was rejected. she says she was turned away because she is white. the university says, its policy is aimed at creating a diverse student pop . he couldn't believe it, stanford -- professor stunned winning this year's nobel prize in chemistry, brian kabilka on the left shares the honor with robert lefkowitz. >> reporter: a press

conference is not the doctor's cup of tea he's shy he says he's not comfortable with all the attention this award is bringing. he says proud to have won it. the phone call came at 2:20 this morning dr. brian kabilka answered the call in his palo alto home and told that he and robert lefkowitz had won the nobel prize for chemistry. >> i had trouble saying anything. probably more towards crying really hard to believe. >> reporter: dr. kabilka had been studying proteins more than a decade starting at duke then stanford because he was curious. he and his wife had a sense his discovery was a big deal his wife realized it when he first announced it at a conference. >> said i still didn't think it was going to work, but here it is and everyone in the auditorium, sat up. i guess that gives me an idea

too it was a big thing. after that conference everyone was surrounding him, everyone wanted to know about. >> reporter: his research explained the body's communication system. his discoveries involving g-protein-coupled receptors could change how we treat disease in the future. >> my hope is that we will be able to use these structures to develop more safer more selective drugs more economically. >> reporter: there were obstacles. the doctor said he lost funding source as long the way because the project wasn't moving along fast enough. at a news conference this morning, he gave stanford university a lot of credit for believing in him. >> being here you can have ideas which other people might think are crazy and probably you're not qualified to do but people at stanford will try to help you. >> reporter: the doctor says he's hoping this award will encourage more funding for scientific research which he

says can be tough to get. amy hollyfield, abc7 news. we have developing news out of florida. a parking garage has collapsed details on this deadly accident, just ahead. congressional hearing going on right now into security failures that may have led to

developing news out of

florida. emergency crews responding to a garage collapse at a miami-dade college campus. one person was killed in the collapse two others are trapped in the . the garage is currently under -- under construction witnesses say they heard a loud boom before the structure came crashing down. students were not in the area at the time. hearings underway now in washington over the death of u.s. ambassador and three others in libya. ambassador stevens died in what the administration now says was a terrorist attack. katie marzullo joins us from the newsroom. >> reporter: because the u.s. state department has officially said the dead on the consulate in benghazi was not a random protest all attention has turned to how it could have happened. thirty days and still no answers. the point republican darrell issa of california head of the house oversight committee made clear as he spoke about the consulate

attack that killed ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. >> it is a long time to wait. >> reporter: today's hearing is supposed to determine if ambassador stevens had adequate security. the chairman of the subcommittee read part of a statement. >> certainly, not an environment where posts should be decked to normalize operations and reduce security resources in -- in accordance with an artificial timetable. >> reporter: the former head of a military team in libya is saying the consulate never had forces it needed to protect itself and stevens knew he was in danger. >> in june, the ambassador received a threat on facebook with a public announcement. >> reporter: still, some committee members have questions. >> he told the committee -- the total committee there should have been five agents in benghazi. in other interviews conducted yesterday, we learned there

were, that there were in fact, five agents in benghazi on the day of the attack. >> reporter: as testimony continues today we'll hear more from eric nordstrom and ambassador patrick kennedy and charlene lamb on behalf of the state department. katie marzullo, abc7 news. mike any more showers or thunderstorms? >> definitely a possibility not a great possibility but unsettled pattern will continue today, tomorrow and end friday afternoon. cooler than average weather until then. also, massive recall involving more than seven million vehicles. the problem that could cause a big scare. playoff frenzy dripping both sides of the bay it is not too late to get tickets

new, more trouble for lance armstrong stripped of his titles and banned from

competitive cycling. the anti-doping agency says 26 people have testified against armstrong, including 11 former teammates. members of the team admitted to doping and claim armstrong encouraged them to do it. the agency says it is the most sophisticated professional and successful doping perhaps the sport has seen. >> former nfl football star turned actor alex karras has died he starred in the hit sitcom webster in the 80s and in several movies. best known for the role in blazing saddles. he played 13 years in the nfl for the lions and one of the most feared defensive players he suffered kidney failure and was diagnosed with dementia alex karras was 77. toyota recalling nearly 7 1/2 million cars worldwide because of a power window problem. toyota says the switch on the the driver's side can cause

friction and sometimes smoke recall affects more than two million autos in the united states. all made from 2005 to 2010. so far no crashes or injuries have been reported. federal officials issuing a warning to drivers who have had air bags replaced in the past three years counterfeit air bags might not inflate. the fake air bags mostly installed at independent repair shops. nhtsa says the best thing to do is contact your dealership. for more information go to abc7news.com click on see it on tv. if you are going to the coliseum tonight wonder if you have to worry about thunder other than the fans cheering. >> loud noises from the 35,000. it was interesting last night one of those stray showers got a little aggressive. we have video, lightning lit

the sky above the peninsula last night it continued across the bay over night especially peninsula across the santa cruz mountains towards the coast we spotted six strikes in one hour from this view. if you were with us this morning it continued until 9:00. there is still another chance, let's look outside now, open up the weather window you can see hazy down from mount tamalpais across sausalito to san francisco, quiet outside right now as it was yesterday, the sun is beating down on the sky having little impact on the clouds of that heating from san francisco back towards twin peaks and mount sutro. right now -- back three hours you can see the last of the showers rotated northwest off the coast going to stay out

over the coast the next couple of hours. this chunk of energy is going to continue to ride farther north hit salinas valley, monterey bay possibly push into the south bay this afternoon into the evening that's our next chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm. 58 san rafael, 59 half moon bay also santa rosa everybody else in the 60s. monterey bay mid 60s everywhere inland to gilroy, 59 salinas, warmer weather more likely we have the buoyancy needed for scattered showers. another chance, small one cold front approaching thursday night into friday once it passes high pressure takes over, warmer and calmer this weekend. below average today upper 60s to low 70s south bay. mid to upper 60s peninsula, low 60s coast, mid 60s downtown south san francisco towards sausalito upper 60s to low 70s north bay valleys low 60s beaches mid to upper 60s

east bay shore warm east bay valleys, low to mid 70s there. a few 70s inland towards morgan hill, gilroy and to a lesser extent. heading to the game, 61°, 6:37 first pitch dropping to 57. partly cloudy, 40s north bay the rest of us in the 50s. watching this low roll through too our south right now. it is going to with that counterclockwise flow continue to push moisture towards us, quiet now as we head too the afternoon and evening moisture starts to come up from the south with isolated thunder it does quiet overnight more will develop towards tomorrow evening. check out snow in the sierra above 8,000 feet. it is looking a little more like winter at least with this go-round. again best chance of anything

measurable thursday night into friday morning. saturday through monday, 60s coast, 70s, 80s rest of us. it is not too late to win $49,000. these people want their chance: they all ended through our facebook page. the winner will be announced after the 49ers game on abc7 october 18th. go to facebook.com/abc7news then click win $49,000 button. that will take you to where you can enter. good luck. thinking about 9ers football also baseball. >> you can still surround yourself in playoff fever. >> we checked stub hub there are 3,000 tickets for tonight's game prices start at $30 game time 6:30.

>> oakland beat detroit 2-0 last night. tigers lead the series two games to one. if the a's win tomorrow there will be a deciding fifth game. >> giants in that same situation. last night they beat the reds in cincinnati 2-1 in 10 innings. hours ago the reds dropped ace quinn toe from their roster he was hurt in game one. -- zito will be starting for us tonight. >> we want to see your post-season pride. e-mail pictures to ureport or share them with us at facebook.com/abc7news. >> or on twitter. we'll be showing photos on air throughout the playoffs. >> so cool. >> peanuts coming back to the big screen.

>> we'll show you who is behind the new movie.

. coming up at on katie keeping your kids safe online. and the job she was trying to get and why it is legal for the company to turn her way. at 5, do you read labels on food? we'll tell but the surprising weight trend for shoppers who

read labels on their food. the peanuts gang is making a comeback. >> creator charles schulz's son and grandson writing and producing a new film based on the peanuts gang. >> movie set to be released november 2015. the 65th anniversary of the first strip. >> the new film doesn't have a title yet no word on the plot. charles schulz lived in santa rosa. >> for all of us here at abc7 news thanks for joining us. >> who wants to be a millionaire is next. >> download our new alarm clock app for free from apple's app store.